The worst parts of the country to suffer a serious accident are in rural America. People die of trauma 3 times as often as in the cities or suburbs. One huge reason? Fewer hospitals. And they’re getting fewer all the time. Rural hospitals face a double whammy…it’s harder to recruit doctors to sparsely settled place and the patient population is unpredictable and low. Staci Matlock, editor of the Taos News, with some sure signs of stress in her local hospital and how her taxpaying readers may be asked to help out.

Almost 7 years in, and the war in Syria is as destructive as ever to civilian life, even though the array of destroyers doing the shooting and changes keeps changing. Saudi Arabia has cashed out and its former clients may now be working for Turkey whose Army has invaded a Syrian area called Afrin. Not too close to American troops. Charles Glass knows Syria as well as any Western reporter, and he’s still a frequent visitor.

For years, enough roads led to the border village of Santa Teresa, NM for people to think they might eventually turn a profit there. Along came NAFTA and Jerry Pacheco started dreaming about a town straddling the border, living the dream of social harmony and profitable trade. Sarah Tory of High Country News says Pacheco’s not the only one banking on Santa Teresa’s future. Of course, if President Trump kills NAFTA and builds his border barrier, Santa Teresa will go back to being a hole in the wall.

Angela Merkel has said it: her 4th term as Germany’s Chancellor will be her last and she intends to serve the full 4 years. But 6 months after she won election, she still needs to form a government. That depends on half a million members of her partners in a “Grand Coalition,” The Social Democratic Party. Will they approve another 4 years playing second fiddle? If they don’t, Merkel says she’ll call a new election in which the far right anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany Party is expected to grow in votes and power. Madeleine Schwartz of the NY Review of Books is living in Berlin.

Is there still a “Western World?” And if there is, who is its leader? Not the usual suspect. President Donald Trump has few followers beyond our borders, and with Angela Merkel struggling to form, much less lead, a government in Germany, and Teresa May struggling to stay in office in the UK, a name you hear a lot is French President Emmanuel Macron. Why? What’s he done and where is he leading France and Europe? AP’s Paris Bureau Chief Angela Charlton covers the story,

The humanitarian disaster in Syria is as bad as ever, with hundreds of thousands of internally displaced Arab families caught up in conventional warfare between the Turkish Army and Kurdish militias. Roy Gutman covered the flight to refuge in Afrin and updates us the refuge has become a deadly trap. And what’s the US military up to, building a client army of 30,000 and several thousand Americans on the ground in support? Finishing off, “annihilating” the ISIS threat is just Job 1 of several. The story, in depth on HERE & THERE -- coming up next

Homelessness is, by definition, a housing problem, but America’s Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Dr Ben Carson says it’s not his problem, “not a Federal problem, but everybody’s problem.” Which usually means, it’s nobody’s problem, except the millions of people in America who go homeless every night. Alastair Gee runs The Guardians’ investigative project on homelessness, Outside in America. He reports a lot of cities are solving their homelessness problem by handing out one-way bus tickets out of town. Some solution!

Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos, and Jamie Dimon are all self-made American billionaires. They’ve succeeded by creating new solutions to investing, retail marketing and banking, now they’re joining together to tackle one of the country’s most perplexing problems: healthcare. Elizabeth Rosenthal, the author of An American Sickness, a best-selling examination of the infrastructure of American medical care looks at the key questions, some possible answers, and the impact these 3 men might have on all American healthcare.

The US Constitution guarantees that everyone facing criminal charges, even if they can’t afford one, is entitled to legal counsel. The State of New Mexico effectively says, “Can’t afford it.” Maggie Shepard of the Albuquerque Journal on the state’s over-burdened Office of the Public Defender. One critic says the effect is, more innocent people in jail and longer sentences for the innocent and guilty alike.

Who’s working in America’s radio and television news rooms? On TV, it sometimes looks like women and minorities are better represented, but are the people you see still tokens of hidden exclusion revealed in the number of women and minorities off camera. And what about the executive suites…is promotion to top management equally open to all? And does the invisibility of radio move it towards inclusion or exclusion of women and minorities? Bob Papper has for years conducted the Hofstra University – Radio TV Digital News Association survey of the industry in America.